Galveston Island prepares for busy holiday weekend

Caution signs stand along the beach at San Luis Pass, where four people have drowned recently.

Photo By Houston Chronicle

Chief Peter Davis, Galveston Island Beach Patrol, hands out literature as he does interviews during a media call to address swimming safety at the San Luis Pass, Monday, July 1, 2013, in Galveston. Davis said there are two things that are making the pass so dangerous, a change in water flow from the pass and huge party crowds at the location. ( Nick de la Torre / Houston Chronicle )

GALVESTON — Law enforcement and trained volunteers will swarm the beaches, especially at deadly San Luis Pass, and special measures will be taken to ward off traffic jams as Galveston Island prepares for an expected half a million visitors over the July Fourth weekend, officials said this week.

“The beach will be inundated with police officers to make sure the beach is respected ... and that everyone has a safe time,” Galveston police Capt. Jeff Heyse said at a news conference at San Luis Pass.

From 35 to 40 volunteers from Texas Search and Rescue will supplement beach patrols on the island and Bolivar Peninsula. Special patrols will be assigned to San Luis Pass at the western end of the island, where four people have drowned over the past few weeks, according to David Popoff, Galveston County emergency management coordinator.

A two-person strike team on an all-terrain vehicle will be assigned to keep people away from the deadly currents that run under the San Luis Bridge, Popoff said, with the goal of preventing another drowning.

Another strike team will patrol on the east end of the island near the Houston Ship Channel. Swimming is illegal on both ends of the island because of unpredictable currents and constantly changing bottoms that can turn a shallow area into a deadly hole with an undertow in just hours.

“The main thing is you have to use common sense,” Mayor Lewis Rosen said, noting that swimmers at San Luis Pass often ignore posted no-swimming signs and Beach Patrol warnings.

County officials will set up a command post in Jamaica Beach, a small town on the western end that is the only part of the island outside Galveston's city limits, Popoff said.

“Galveston is a hot, hot, hot tourist site and we are expecting a half-million people,” said Councilwoman Marie Robb, whose district extends from the end of the seawall to San Luis Pass.

To cope with the crowds, Galveston police will bolster the island's Beach Patrol with a pair of two-person all-terrain vehicles, an SUV and three mounted police, Heyse said. Galveston County Sheriff Louis Trochesset said more deputies were assigned to the Bolivar Peninsula.

To head off the congestion that has left departing visitors stuck in traffic for hours on previous holiday weekends, police this year have been assigned to every intersection on 61st Street, the main thoroughfare connecting Seawall Boulevard with Interstate 45. On Saturday and Sunday afternoons lights, will stay green for those leaving the island, said Heyse.

He said police may do the same for Broadway Boulevard, the other major island thoroughfare, if enough officers are available. Broadway, however, is cut with dozens of light-controlled intersections and would take considerably more personnel.

Holiday weekends normally are marked by an increase in service calls, making it more difficult to keep traffic flowing on Broadway, Heyse said.